We have offices—
Evidence of meeting #122 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was countries.
A video is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #122 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was countries.
A video is available from Parliament.
4:10 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We have offices—
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Rob Oliphant
I need to end it there, sorry. You'll get another round.
Next is Mr. Garrison.
I don't know what committee you're normally on, but I'm sure this is an upgrade.
September 27th, 2018 / 4:10 p.m.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
It's national defence.
Thanks very much. I am pleased to be at this committee today for several reasons. One, of course, is that as a gay man, I am someone who came to Canada when I would not have been recognized as a refugee, but I was a refugee. The second reason is that last Thursday, I was with the Gorge Tillicum refugee sponsorship group in my riding, which is a group of 30 citizens who are sponsoring the reunification of a Somali family of eight by raising $90,000 in my community to do that. So there is an interest in my constituency among the public. We have now, I think, 171 sponsorship groups operating in and around my riding. While a lot of times in the media we hear the concerns about migration and refugees, what I see on the ground in my riding is a very Canadian spirit to help.
I appreciate the work of the UNHCR. Previous to being a member of Parliament, I did international work in conflict zones, and I've often worked with UNHCR staff, who risk their lives as well.
It's a great description of the challenge that's facing the entire world with refugees. I think we—certainly, my party—appreciate the concern about the limited resettlement opportunities. I was pleased to hear you talking about resettlement on the basis of urgent need or urgent threat to safety.
I am going to talk about the LGBT community in particular. My colleague from Vancouver East, when she was with the committee in Uganda, heard some disturbing statements from people about LGBTI refugees: they simply need not flaunt their sexuality and they won't be in danger and that it's unfair for LGBTQ or LGBTI refugees to jump the queue.
In terms of evaluating vulnerability of the refugee populations, how do you do that when it comes to the LGBTI community?
4:10 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
You were not there, but maybe the letters with all the information that I shared previously to the committee could be shared. I'm happy to share it again.
4:10 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We have training for all of our staff. In most of our operations we have dedicated staff to receive LGBTQ. I always give the example of the operation in Lebanon. We had made sure that the LGBTQ community had a code when they were arriving at our registration centre. If they said “tulipe”, they would be screened differently and sent to dedicated staff to review what their needs were, because we needed to be extremely sensitive about how the questions were being asked to identify the LGBTQ community.
Not all LGBTQ refugees are in need of resettlement. In a number of countries, in a number of situations, which may depend also on their socio-economic levels and their level of education, they can have a normal life as a refugee, which is never a normal life, in the first country. But for some of them, there is a risk of arrest, of being returned, of being discriminated against in terms of access to livelihood, including a risk of having only as a survival means to go into survival sex. Those are therefore prioritized by us for resettlement to a country like Canada.
In particular, if we look at Central America, we have a specific situation with trans women who are particularly targeted by the maras, the criminal gangs, and when they come to a third country in the subregion, remain at risk of forced prostitution and so on. They have difficulties in getting access to hormonal treatment. Those are prioritized for resettlement. I met one of them recently in Vancouver, for example.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
I appreciate what you've said about some not needing to be resettled, but in a world where over 70 countries still criminalize based on sexual orientation and where the risk of violence is quite high for my community in over 100 countries, I just want to stress that those resettlement opportunities are also small. When people do need resettlement, there aren't very many countries that will accept the claims based on sexual orientation. How many countries will do that?
4:15 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
In terms of resettlement, I think the overwhelming majority of the 33 countries that are doing resettlement absolutely recognize LGBTQ, sexual orientation and gender diversity as a ground—
4:15 p.m.
NDP
4:15 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Thirty-three or 32.9? Thirty-three countries.
4:15 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
No, I'm pretty sure, all of them.
4:15 p.m.
Senior Resettlement Officer, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
For sure.
4:15 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
For sure.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Randall Garrison NDP Esquimalt—Saanich—Sooke, BC
You say that, in your selection process, you have a separate screening and a separate path.
One of the things that I've been working on since the Liberal government was elected is trying to get the Government of Canada to recognize that saying LGBTI people aren't discriminated against and can access all our services on the same basis as everyone else is not a reality for most of the LGBTI community.
I've been asking the government, and I'm repeating that request today, to set aside and make a special path available beyond our normal resettlement that would have staff on the ground who would be trained specifically to deal with the LGBTI community.
Do you think that would be a good idea? Is there a need for that?
4:15 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
As UNHCR, we will not say that there is a specific need, because they are already, in comparison to global resettlement criteria, one of the categories that need to be prioritized. What we need not only from Canada but from the world is a larger number of options for those LGBTQ, rape survivors, journalists at risk, indigenous leaders, and human rights defenders to be able to be protected through the solution, which is very particular, of being resettled to a third country.
It would be extremely difficult for UNHCR to discriminate between an LGBTQ person who has been raped and a heterosexual person who has been raped. Why would we do that?
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
Thank you for being here. It's always a pleasure to have you here and get some insight from you.
My riding of Surrey Centre probably has one of the highest concentrations of Syrian refugees in the recent settlement. I have close to 1,000 in my riding, and I often have them come into my office. The biggest concern and biggest stress they have is bigger than the stress of adjusting into Canada. It's that they know they have siblings and relatives still in different camps.
Can you let us know how your settlement of UNHCR-recognized refugees happens? Does the fact that they have family or siblings play into that? Is there a higher chance to get settled into Canada for those who already have siblings here? We did a study here before which showed that those who have family who join us have a higher chance of success in Canada and a higher success at integration. It's also the same, I think, for refugee families. Could you elaborate on how that plays into the process?
4:15 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
I will leave it in the hands of IRCC colleagues to explain why that's a different option for resettled refugees to bring their other family members to Canada.
What I want to stress is that, when we do the resettlement of refugees, we ensure that the nuclear family, the composition of the family, is guaranteed.
4:15 p.m.
Senior Resettlement Officer, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Sorry, but I will add that one of the things we advocate with resettlement countries is where there is a sense of a de facto family relationship. For example, we deal oftentimes with reconstituted families. We try to encourage resettlement countries to accept all of them together.
Where family links come up most often is where we're going to destine the person, where we're going to destine the referral. It may come up that we've identified you based on the fact that you're a refugee woman at risk, but now the question comes up of whose door we knock on. Do we knock on Finland's door, Canada's door or Australia's door? If there's a family member in Canada, then we're more than likely to knock on the Canadian door.
4:20 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
When we speak about families, it sometimes may not be only blood-related family. In the case of children, when we can demonstrate that the child was in the care.... We have a case with MP Whalen where the child, a minor, was in the care of a person who was being resettled to Canada, and this child was also taken into consideration.
4:20 p.m.
Liberal
Randeep Sarai Liberal Surrey Centre, BC
I see.
As you know, many of my colleagues visited Africa and visited some of these camps. One of the things I heard, which was a little shocking for me, was that safety at the camps, particularly for women when the power or lights would go out, was at risk. There's a very high chance that they would be sexually assaulted.
Is there any initiative to address that, or is it due just to a lack of funding that we can't have secure, safe lighting, solar-powered battery backup, generators, etc., particularly for those high-risk areas where women should be able to feel safe, so that they're not assaulted?
It seems from what I heard from my colleague's testimony here that it was epidemic. It was systemic. It was repeated. It was not isolated. It was over and over again. I can't imagine how countries would not answer that call. I know there are a lot of big asks when you're dealing with refugees, but this is just to ensure safety and security within a camp or a settlement place like in Uganda, to ensure that at least power and lighting be secure.
I know power is difficult there, but lighting should be secure. Are there ways or best practices so security can be improved?
4:20 p.m.
Representative in Canada, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
We have a lot of practices in this respect. There are issues, also, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, of where the boreholes have being drilled so that women do not have to do a long commute between their house and where they will fetch water, separate toilets for girls in schools, and lighting, as you have mentioned.
You would be surprised to hear that the sexual and gender-based violence, SGBV, sector that responds to those needs—and we know how to better protect women and girls—is always one of the two or three least funded of all sectors. The least one is always health. I had a question earlier about what we do to provide health assistance, but the SGBV sector is critically underfunded.
We know how to, but we don't always receive the means from the international community, from the donors, to deliver the result for women and girls.
